"We intend to spend significant amounts on marketing, including promotional offerings, to attract, retain and renew subscribers, but access to suitable marketing channel might not be available. If companies we plan to use to promote WWE Network believe that we could negatively impact their business, decide that they want to enter similar businesses or wish to support our competitors, we may not be given access to such marketing channels". This is an interesting and provocative statement. Starting the WWE Network was disruptive and did anger a lot of people in the television industry. USA Network isn't thrilled that WWE is telling people to switch over to the pre and post-Raw shows on the Network. Hulu isn't happy that the WWE Network is competing with them in the digital space, especially when replays of Raw & Smackdown programming is supposed to be living there exclusively. Multichannel Video Programming Distributors (Cable Companies and Satellite Providers) aren't happy that WWE is dropping the online PPV price and cutting them out of the revenue sharing. Surely, some of these fights are playing out during the domestic TV Rights negotiations with NBCU and other media giants. We're going to see some of these distributors turning more attention to promoting UFC and Boxing, still PPV heavyweights, instead of promoting upcoming WWE events. By launching during Road to Wrestlemania season, WWE ensured they could get the most eyeballs on the product during a critical period, but they also risked putting the cart before the horse as they don't have their domestic TV deals for 2015 and beyond locked down yet. They've stirred a hornet's nest and it's not entirely clear whether they can hit their target of one million customers without needing to cross into a lot of other marketing channels, some which might be a lot more hostile than originally expected. The WWE Network provides the company with a lot of potential and a lot of headaches. So far, it's been a bumpy launch but the real test will come Wrestlemania week!
I'm a professional wrestling analyst, an improviser and an avid NES gamer. I live in Saint Paul, Minnesota and I'm working on my first book (#wrestlenomics). You can contact me at chris.harrington@gmail.com or on twitter (@mookieghana)
